"Alone we can do so little,

together we can do so much,"

- Helen Keller

Lydia and Harry sat on the stone steps of the Entrance Hall, wrapped up in their cloaks and scarves. He was pouring over that potions book. Lydia glanced at it and frowned. There was something weirdly familiar about that handwriting but she couldn't quite work out why. She decided not to spend her time worrying about it - it hadn't hurt anyone and she was sure that Hermione would figure out who it used to belong to before long.

"All the Weasleys have great hair," Lydia said, as Ginny walked past with Dean.

"What?" Harry asked.

"All the Weasleys have great hair. Have you noticed?"

"No..."

"Next time you see Ron, look at his hair." Lydia told him, "It might just change your life,"

"Are you trying to set me up with Ron?"

"No!" She said quickly, "I'm just saying..." She glanced at her brother, "but you're single, right? If you're looking for someone with great hair-"

"I'm not going to go out with a Weasley!"

"You say that like its a bad thing - also, there's more than enough to go around," she added, "I mean sure, Bill and Fleur are going to get married and Percy probably wouldn't even want to look at you-"

"I'm also quite sure he's straight,"

"There's always Charlie or Fred," she said, "Although, it might be a weird if you went out with Fred because George-"

"Also quite sure Fred is straight and Charlie would sooner marry a dragon than a human," Harry pointed out, "It's a bit sad, really, isn't it? I'm bisexual and single. There's twice the amount of people for me!"

Lydia sniggered.

"What about Oliver Wood? I always thought he was two Quidditch matches away from marrying you," Lydia said, "Also, all the jokes you could make..."

"Jokes?"

"Morning, Wood!" There was a moments silence in which Harry was working out the joke before he burst into laughter

"You stole that joke off George, didn't you?"

"Every funny thing I say is a joke I stole off George," Lydia admitted, "But don't tell anyone. Everyone thinks I'm really funny,"

"No, they don't - oh, here we go,"

Lydia looked up as Draco Malfoy popped out from behind the pillar. She frowned at him - had he been listening to their entire conversation? The look of horror on Harry's face told her that he was worried about the exact same thing.

"Got Quidditch practice tonight, remember, Potty?" Malfoy said to her, a sneer creeping up onto his face.

"Yes, Malfoy, I do," She said stiffly.

"Seems like you've both stopped arguing...guess the Wizarding World can relax now," He continued.

Harry glared at him, "What do you want, Malfoy?"

"Wouldn't you like to know. Bye," And he sauntered off.

"Do you think that emphasis on the word 'Bye," meant something? Does he know?" Harry asked her.

"He wouldn't say anything," Lydia said quickly, "He knows not to. No one trusts him anymore because of his dad,"

"Yeah...maybe,"

"Oi! Lydia!"

She spotted Ron on the other side of the corridor. He shoved a fourth year out of the way and almost tripped up trying to getting her. He put on such a spectacle of trying to get from one side of the corridor to the other, that she couldn't help but stop and stare.

"Aren't you going to be late for potions?"

He glanced at his watch and shrugged.

"I never wanted to take it in the first place, anyway," he sighed, "Anyway, Dumbledore wants to speak to you-"

"Why?"

"I don't know. McGonagall told me to find you and tell you. He wants to speak to you now. She also said that he likes acid pops,"

Lydia groaned. "Like now now?"

"Actually about ten minutes ago but I got lost on the way to Arithmancy. I didn't know it was in this part of the castle,"

"You've been here six ye-oh never mind. I'll see you later,"

Lydia turned back around and walked to Dumbledore's office. The stone gargoyle that guarded her office seemed to glare down at her. She actually stood and glared back at it for a while until she remember that it was an inanimate object.

"Acid pops,"

It jumped to life and Lydia hurried on it as it rose up to the Headmasters office. Lydia knocked on the door once and it swung open. Dumbledore was sat behind his desk, resting his chin on fingers in deep thought. Lydia lingered awkwardly by the door and tried to catch his eye, but he seemed quite unaware that she was stood in front of him.

"Um, Professor?"

His eyes flickered up to meet hers and he smiled.

"Welcome, Lydia. Do sit down," He gestured to the chair, "How are you? I hope I've not pulled you away from something important,"

"Oh, no, Professor. I had an extra Ancient Runes class but it's fine, I'll tell Professor Babbling where I was,"

"I feel that I haven't really seen anything of you this year. I never see you in the Great Hall,"

"I take a lot of classes, Professor," Lydia shrugged, "It's hard to balance by time between work, Quidditch and prefect duties, but I think I'm doing OK,"

Dumbledore nodded.

"You are a fantastic Quidditch player, Lydia. Why did it take so long for you to try out?"

Lydia shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I never thought about it and it was always Harry's thing, anyway,"

"And you and Harry, are you still close?" Dumbledore asked slowly.

"Yes, Professor. More than ever,"

"There is something I would like to discuss with you...a matter of great importance,"

Dumbledore said, "I understand why you said what you said last year, but I am curious to know if your position has changed at all? I do not know what you have discussed with Harry, but our private lessons are more important than ever,"

"My position has not changed," Lydia said, bluntly.

"It is of the utmost importance-"

"Not to me,"

Dumbledore regarded her for a moment and then nodded, "Very well, Lydia, but I must ask...why?"

"Why don't I want to go after a man who wants to kill me?" Lydia asked, not even trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, "Gosh, why on earth would I want to avoid someone who wiped out my entire family?" she felt as though she might have been being slightly rude, but she couldn't bring herself to care enough to apologise.

"I just find it curious," Dumbledore said, lightly. "Harry is more than willing to-"

"I'm not my brother,"

Lydia expected to get reprimanded for interrupting him but he completely disregarded.

"No," he said, softly, "of course you're not. Now, another question - what is it that you want to do when you leave Hogwarts, Lydia?"

"Um, I don't know," she answered truthfully.

"I thought it was your wish to be an Auror?" He persisted, "That is what you told Professor Snape during your careers meeting last year,"

She shrugged, "Not anymore,"

"You would be a terrific addition to the Aurors,"

"I would be terrific at many things but that doesn't mean I should do them,"

He chuckled slightly, "That is true," he smiled at her, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I have not seen enough of you this year. If you ever need to talk to me, you know where I am,"

"Thank-you, Professor,"

"Enjoy the rest of your school year, Lydia,"

Slytherin were set to play Hufflepuff that weekend and Lydia was much more excited about this match than the last. For one thing, she was actually talking to Harry, Ron and Hermione again and they had put their Gryffindor pride aside to support Slytherin. Lydia almost burst into tears when Lydia walked into the Great Hall on Saturday morning and found the three of them with Slytherin colours painted onto their cheeks and wearing Slytherin scarves. Neville and Luna were also wearing Slytherin colours.

Even better, George had also been able to get away from work to come and see her play. He surprised her just before she walked into the changing rooms, prompting Malfoy to roll his eyes and Zabini to nearly curse them both.

"Good luck," he said, winking. "Fred's saved me a seat in the stands," he kissed her and walked away.

"If you get distracted by your boyfriend and lose this game, I'm going to be really pissed off," Urquhart muttered darkly.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "If we lose, it'll be your fault. You're the Captain,"

They walked out onto the pitch to raucous cheers. Lydia looked up at the stands and her heart skipped a beat for she could quite distinctly see Professor Dumbledore sat next to Professor Slughorn. As far as Lydia could remember, the last time Dumbledore had come to a Quidditch match was during the final match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw when Gryffindor had won the cup for the first time in years. She felt as though the conversation they had had in his office that week might have been the reason for him attending.

James blew his whistle and they kicked off the ground. Lydia veered out of the way as one of the Hufflepuff Beaters hit a Bludger towards her. Urquhart chucked the Quaffle towards her and she caught it, zooming off down the pitch. Zabini caught up towards her and she reversed passed to him quickly. So quickly, in fact, that the Hufflepuff Beaters didn't realise that she didn't have the Quaffle anymore and focused all their attention on her - allowing Zabini to score.

Hufflepuff were back in possession and Lydia intercepted one of their passes. She shot off down the pitch, weaving in and out of players. The Hufflepuff keeper drew closer and the Quaffle soared through the middle hoop.

"Nice one, Potter!" Urquhart yelled as she flew past him.

She glanced over at the stands and she could see George jumping up an down and clapping. For the second time that day, she could have started crying out of sheer happiness.

From then on, the game carried on in Slytherins favour and it was the best game the team had had in awhile. They won 250-50 and Malfoy actually carried off a quite spectacular catch. Even Lydia felt the need to go over to him and congratulate him as they landed on the ground. Though instead of thanking her, he just told her to piss off.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, Luna and Neville were waiting outside the changing room for her and all burst into applause when she came out. James hurried over to her and hugged her, shouting about how proud he was of her. She felt herself go bright red and the rest of the team rolled their eyes when they came out after her. Though, there was quite a tense moment in which Malfoy and Harry stood staring at each other before Malfoy swore at them all and stormed off.

"Weirdo," Fred muttered, "What's his problem?"

"Many, many things," Ron said, watching him go, but then he brightened and turned to Lydia, "But that was an amazing match! You're third goal actually made me cry a bit," he hugged her but they were torn apart by a horrified scream; Lavender was stood just feet away from them, staring at the two of them.

"RON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She yelled.

"Wait! Lavender! No! She's just my friend! It's not-"

"HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF I JUST HUGGED SEAMUS?"

"Can I just point out that my boyfriend is stood there and he's-" but Lydia's words were drowned out by Lavender bursting into tears and running off. She glanced at Ron who hung his head, "Sorry, mate, I tried.."

George clapped him on the back, "Would it make you feel better if I started crying?"

"No, fuck off," and he ran after Lavender.

Hermione looked thrilled.

Fred and George had to leave to go back to the shop. When Lydia walked back up to the castle, she felt a lot happier than she had in awhile. She almost felt like she did in fourth year before her and Harry's name had come out of the Goblet of Fire. It was almost as if she didn't have a care in the world - for the first time, perhaps ever, she felt like a normal teenager.

"I feel like I haven't seen you all year," Neville said, falling into step with her.

"I know," she sighed, "it's been a weird couple of months, Nev,"

He nodded, "I know, I know," He shrugged, "But we've got to keep fighting, haven't we?"

Lydia frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged again.

"I don't know, it's something I've been thinking about a lot ever since the Ministry. Ever since I saw Bellatrix Lestrange and she said all those things about my parents...I knew I had to keep on fighting, for my parents, you know?" He said, "They fought for me and now I'm gonna do the same thing for them. When you and Harry started the DA, I kind of knew that we'd have to fight and what happened at the Ministry just solidified that fo me,"

"You know, you're completely different to the Neville I met in first year,"

"You say that like you're not completely different to the Lydia I met in first year,"

"Remember when you were scared of me?"

"Everyone was scared of you,"

They arrived in the Entrance Hall and Lydia, who had a lot of work to do, went back to her dormitory, picked up her work and made her way up to the library. Suddenly, someone grabbed the back of her robes and pulled her backwards, shoving her behind one of the tapestries that concealed a secret passageway. Panicked, Lydia plunged her hand into her robes and took her wand out, pointing it blindly.

"Oh, get over yourself, I'm not going to curse you,"

"Malfoy?" Lydia said in disbelief, "What in the name of Merlin are you doing?"

"You never told me your brother was into blokes,"

"My brother is -what?" Lydia said quickly, "I don't know what you're talking about, Malfoy,"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't play stupid, Potter, I heard you talking about it!"

"Why should I have told you about it, anyway?" She snapped, "I wasn't aware it was any of your business,"

"Because you know I like him!" He hissed at her.

"Yeah, I do know that, but I also know that he doesn't like you!" She snapped, "You've been a dickhead since first year!"

"I know, but I'm trying!" He said, "I...there's a lot going on...I don't know how..."

"I can't help you with that," she snapped and she shoved past him, "but maybe you could start by trying to be a good person!"

"Potter - wait!"

"No, Malfoy! Seriously, you've been a dick to us and our friends since first year! Think about all those horrible things you said about the Weasleys! And that god awful song you wrote about Ron last year!"

He looked offended for a moment but then he stormed off. It was only when she finally sat down in the library and she opened her Charms book that she realised how ill Malfoy was looking these days. She suddenly felt quite bad for the way she had treated him but then remembered how much of a dick he was and shoved him from her mind.